Riots May Have Killed Britain's Green Consensus

The first concern is that the riots and their fallout will eat up all the political oxygen for months, if not years to come. A party conference season that should have seen at least some debate on the grave threat posed by climate change and the huge opportunity presented by the low carbon economy will now be dominated by much hand-wringing and political jostling over "the state of modern Britain".

A chilling climate on FOI | The Australian

WHEN it comes to the business of government, too much information is barely enough. So we struggle to see how the Department of Climate Change could consider Tim Wilson of the Institute of Public Affairs a vexatious Freedom of Information applicant, since in our book there can never be anything vexatious about exercising the public's right to know.

No ifs, no buts. Dealing with Mr Wilson's 750 requests is no doubt time consuming, but guess what? When bureaucrats complain about being held to account the rest of us start wondering what they have got to hide. Journalists and researchers would have every reason to drop a few hundred more FOI requests onto their desks.